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Preserving Records for Future Generations
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Last year, through Mercy eNews, we shared information on the exciting MIA project to digitise the archival collection held at the Centre through the Preservica online software. While the project has taken longer than we expected, in time, anyone will be able to go online to view and search digital copies of Catherine’s hand-written letters and explore different items in the collection…
Vision in Action
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prayer
MIA Prayer Intention: 12 May, International Nurses' Day
Next Tuesday is International Nurses Day. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s theme ‘Nursing the World to Health’ is particularly poignant.
God of Mercy and Compassion,
We pray for all nurses and nurses in training, giving thanks for their expert care, bedside manner and commitment to serve others, particularly at this time when their own welfare is at risk. We ask that they may be blessed with the mental strength, physical energy and good health to continue with their essential work. Amen.
Post your prayer in our online chapel
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Events & Programmes
May Dates for Virtual Tours of MIC
Missed the tours in March and April? Here’s your chance to join one in May.
Tours dates for the rest of May are: 10, 12, 20 and 21 May. We invite you to book in for yourself, your community or ministry.
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MGA
Responding to the Global Pandemic through MGA COVID-19 TaskForce
United Nations, Secretary General, António Guterres recently released a policy brief entitled “We are all in this Together.” The policy brief insists that a response to the COVID -19 pandemic must derive from a Human Rights Framework. Recognising that the Virus does not discriminate but its impacts do, a human rights approach ‘puts everyone in the picture and ensures that no-one is left behind’.
Much of what is proposed in this policy briefing can provide a blue print for a collective Mercy response…
Impact of COVID-19: Kenya, Haiti and PNG
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Mary Killeen rsmThe Congregation
Venture to Produce Free Masks for Slum Dwellers Kicks Off
Editor: The Nairobi News reports that two tailors at Mukuru Promotion Centre (MPC) in Nairobi Kenya are sewing 60 masks each day to serve students and families in the slums.
Mary Killeen rsm, Director of the Centre and who has worked in the slums for over 40 years, says there is a need to think of the poor during this period. ‘It is impossible to social distance in the slums and having them all enclosed in those areas without an income and food is very dangerous. Crime rates and diseases will increase’
Donations to purchase material to create masks are welcome.
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Flora and her boys. Photo: MFOHAmericas
Mercy Focus on Haiti and its Work to address Food Insecurity in Haiti.
When ultra-poor Haitian mothers have nothing to feed their children, they give them a sugar cane stalk to chew on to stave off painful hunger pangs.
In Haiti the pandemic has not yet hit with the full fury as it has elsewhere. But its effects are being felt and it is devastating.
Before COVID-19, hunger was already a problem in Haiti. In a country of over 11 million people at least 3.7 million (35%) were already in desperate need of a daily meal.
The most evident current effect the pandemic is having on our people in Haiti is a precipitous drop in remittances…
Donations for those affected are welcome.
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Faye Kelly rsmISMAPNG
The Face Masks for Papua New Guinea (PNG) Project
The UN estimates the current population of PNG at 8.95 million. The last advice is that 500 sets of PPE have been handed over to 22 provinces to share… The potential for tragic consequences lies heavy here.
There are Sisters, relatives and friends of Sisters around the Institute who are assisting at their sewing machines and sewing up masks at a rapid rate.
Sewers and Donors for sewing materials, postage, soap are welcome
Members' News
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Americas
In Bridgeport, a Microcosm of COVID-19's Impact on America's Poorest
‘Last week, a call came in to the Mercy Learning Center from one of its students.
The woman, a mother of four, had just brought her husband to a clinic. He had been exhibiting symptoms of the coronavirus for three weeks. They were afraid to seek treatment because they are not U.S. citizens. So they waited. The moment he arrived at the clinic, the staff called an ambulance.
Now she and two of her children have the virus…’
Source: Global Sisters Report
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Image used with permission of Longford LeaderThe Congregation
Mercy Ballymahon Students Chosen for National Calf-rearing Competition
Students from Mercy Secondary School, Ballymahon, founded by the Sisters of Mercy, now under the Trusteeship of CEIST, are one of five school groups who have been chosen to rear five Irish Angus calves for 18 months as part of a unique schools competition.
‘The Certified Irish Angus Schools Competition, run in association with processing partners ABP and Kepak, aims to encourage second-level students to gain an understanding about the care and attention that is required to produce and market the highest quality Irish Angus beef for consumers…’
Source: Longford Leader
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Sr Ita and SaidulGB Union
Remembering Sr Ita: Tips for Organising
A year ago, today [26 April], we lost our rock: Sr Ita Keane (1945-2019) to a tragic road traffic accident.
Sr Ita Keane was the Director of St Mary’s Convent, an inner-city Birmingham Catholic convent… Home to the UK’s top community organising nuns, the convent has been the epicentre of all meeting, training and reflecting by civil society leaders across Citizens UK in Birmingham since 2012…
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Image: Lital levy on UnsplashAotearoa New Zealand
'I am with You on the Way': Scripture with Kathleen Rushton rsm
Kathleen Rushton rsm reflects on Jesus’s farewell address in John 14: 1-21 in light of our challenges in this time of COVID-19. Sr Kathleen writes: ‘During the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen the global community come together in unprecedented ways for the common good. We’ve recognised Earth as our common home and experienced how closely the Earth community is interconnected’.
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The Congregation
Human Trafficking Webinar
MECPATHS are co-hosting a seminar on May 7th on Human Trafficking online. They would like to extend a very warm invitation to you to join the event which will be streamed through Zoom from 2-4pm (Your Time here)
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ISMAPNG
Sisters Graduate in Papua New Guinea
On Sunday, March 15, nineteen Religious Sisters of Papua New Guinea graduated with a Diploma in Pastoral Ministry.
The five Mercy graduates were joined by Sisters of seven other orders, many of whom represented both their family and order as the first member to achieve a university award…
Mercy Matters
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Gospel
5th Sunday in Easter, Year A
John 14:1-14
‘“Take from my heart all painful anxiety” is a gospel inspired prayer. It is the prayer of Catherine McAuley, the first Sister of Mercy. Like Jesus, Catherine knew in her being that a troubled heart is an ever present possibility. When we don’t have any serious concerns in the present, we are often anxious about the future...'
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Resource
Mapping Faith: Theologies of Migration and Community
Sheila Curran rsm (The Congregation) is among the writers, poets and artists who have contributed to this newly released collection which ‘shows how migration shapes the lives of faith communities - and vice versa - through diverse prisms including diaspora, generational change, cultural conflict, conceptions of 'ministry' and artistic response’.
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St Katherine DrexelFact
On This Day
1840: Foundation to Galway from Baggot St -
M Teresa White
1872: Foundation to Warrnambool, Victoria from Baggot St - M Philomene Maguire
1889: St. Katherine Drexel, Foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, began her novitiate in Mercy convent, Pittsburgh
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Digital life
How To Create a Group Email In Gmail and Other Hidden Features
‘If you regularly send emails to the same people, learning this trick will save you lots of time and effort.
In order to send a group email in Gmail, you first need to create a mailing list with all the contacts you want to include. You can later edit those groups by adding or removing contacts…’
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Prayer
Pray As You Stay -Week 3 Now Added
The reflections focus on facing up to the difficult things we face at the moment:
- Anxieties
- Suffering
- Death
- Loneliness
- Disappointment
- Waiting
Decisions (what matters most)
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Technical Tip
UISG: Zoom Webinar
May 7, 2020 at 2pm Rome time (Your Time Here)
Webinar:
’How to organize a meeting or a course with Zoom: technical and facilitation tools’
Further Resources
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Worth Watching
Praise to The lord (Joyful, Joyful)
Acoustic versions of these hymns by ShaneAndShaneMusic, a Texas-based, contemporary worship music band
Watch/listen here)
Worth Reading
A Time to Save the Sick and Rescue the Planet
‘With closer cooperation among nations, the head of the United Nations argues, we could stop a pandemic faster and slow climate change…’
Read the Opinion piece here)
Worth Reading
Shipwrecked! How social isolation can enrich our spiritual lives – like Robinson Crusoe
‘Enforced quiet and separation because of coronavirus can reacquaint some of us with the value of peace, while solitude can whet our appetites for the joys of true fellowship. Just as the shipwrecked Crusoe is reborn, so trying times can clarify for us the true bounties of our lives…
Read the article here)
Worth Knowing
The Shows Must Go On
Every Friday at 7pm British Standard Time (BST) throughout the coronavirus lockdown, Andrew Lloyd Webber makes an online show free for 48 hours. View these at The Show Must Go On
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Worth Reading
Same storm, different boats: Vatican looks at ways to help all survive
‘"Either we are going to be remembered as the most irresponsible generation in the history of the planet, or this crisis will provide a window of opportunity to become the generation that regenerates a healthy society with healthy people, with healthy institutions and with a healthy planet," said Father Augusto Zampini, recently named adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development…’
Read the article here)
Worth Watching
'When this is Over' by Laura Kelly Fanucci
We’ve previously published the text of this pandemic poem. Now here are two versions in video format; one with text on screen, the other with the poem read aloud.
Text on screen version Read aloud versionSend suggestions and contributions for the ‘Worth’ Section 2020 to: The Editor
The Bottom Line
‘Each contact with a human being is so rare, so precious, one should preserve it.’
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Mercy eNews
The online newsletter of Mercy International Association is published fortnightly, 24 weeks each year and distributed to subscribers via email.
For more information on the directors click here
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